Attack of DoS/DDoS

Fraudsters are doing more than shutting down sites by flooding them with millions of automated inquiries. They’re infecting websites with malware that unsuspecting users are downloading on their devices. Here’s how to advise your organizations and clients to protect domain name servers that will prevent loss of revenue, productivity and reputation.

Jake Feeney, who worked for a cybersecurity company, thought he was savvy about computer technology trends. He replaced his devices every three years with the latest and greatest. So, he was perplexed when a favorite website wasn’t downloading on his laptop. A colleague told him that the company that owned the site probably had experienced a denial of service (DoS) or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. A fraudster might have flooded the company’s system with thousands, if not millions, of unwanted incoming inquiries that prevented others from accessing the website quickly or not at all.

While the fraudster distracted the company with the cyberattack, he then uploaded malware on the website company’s computer network. When the company finally reestablished its site, users unwittingly downloaded nasty viruses onto their devices.

This case is fictional, but it shows how DoS or DDoS attacks can compromise the speed of organizations’ network performance and steal valuable personally identifiable information and money from their clients and users.